Psalm 98: 1-9 (links validated 12/05/23)

When Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., wrote his award-winning book Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, he got the inspiration for the book’s title from a scene early in the Lawrence Kasdan movie Grand Canyon. A well-to-do white man named Mack has his Lexus breakdown in a Los Angeles neighborhood where one most definitely never wanted to be stranded. Predictably he is soon accosted by some gang members who threaten his life and are preparing to jack his car. Just then Simon shows up, an African-American tow truck driver who makes it clear that gang intimidation or no, he is going to tow this car away and take the driver safely with him. As you can see in this compilation scene, eventually Simon tells the gang members that “everything is supposed to be different than what it is.”...

When Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., wrote his award-winning book Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, he got the inspiration for the book’s title from a scene early in the Lawrence Kasdan movie Grand Canyon. A well-to-do white man named Mack has his Lexus breakdown in a Los Angeles neighborhood where one most definitely never wanted to be stranded. Predictably he is soon accosted by some gang members who threaten his life and are preparing to jack his car. Just then Simon shows up, an African-American tow truck driver who makes it clear that gang intimidation or no, he is going to tow this car away and take the driver safely with him. As you can see in this compilation scene, eventually Simon tells the gang members that “everything is supposed to be different than what it is.” Wise words. And true. Things are out of plumb. Injustices abound and go unchecked. Maybe that is why the idea that a good and loving God is going to come by and by and judge all things really is precisely the motivation for praising God that Psalm 98 claims it to be.

When Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., wrote his award-winning book Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be, he got the inspiration for the book’s title from a scene early in the Lawrence Kasdan movie Grand Canyon. A well-to-do white man named Mack has his Lexus breakdown in a Los Angeles neighborhood where one most definitely never wanted to be stranded. Predictably he is soon accosted by some gang members who threaten his life and are preparing to jack his car. Just then Simon shows up, an African-American tow truck driver who makes it clear that gang intimidation or no, he is going to tow this car away and take the driver safely with him. As you can see in this compilation scene, eventually Simon tells the gang members that “everything is supposed to be different than what it is.” Wise words. And true. Things are out of plumb. Injustices abound and go unchecked. Maybe that is why the idea that a good and loving God is going to come by and by and judge all things really is precisely the motivation for praising God that Psalm 98 claims it to be.

I always know if it's raining because the usual morning farm sounds are absent. The goats stay in and the chickens hold off on their singing. Even Arnold prefers to sleep in. At first, I will only hear the sound of rain. It's as if the animals have made some secret pact to never speak on rainy mornings. But, then, when I listen a little closer and with a bit more focus, I can hear the sound of birds. The sounds are not melodic like the early morning songs of a nightingale, but I'm clear that my four ducks, are in fact, singing songs. While every other animal takes cover in the sheer distaste for rain - the ducks waddle their way to the farthest edge of the property. They find the biggest puddles in the entire yard, and they make a joyful noise! They quack in a cacophony of delight and joy as water anoints their feathers and washes over their wings...

In a similar vein, I am haunted by a scene from a new bestselling debut novel, Lilac Girls. It follows three young women through the devastation of World War II. One is an American socialite who devotes herself to aiding people who are suffering around the world. A second is a German doctor who conducts horrific experiments on Polish girls in Ravensbruck. The last is one of those Polish girls who is hobbled for life by one of that doctor’s savage surgeries. Toward the end of the book, after the war is over, the Polish girl travels through a war-ravaged Poland to confront that German doctor. Even 10 years after the war, Poland is in shambles—buildings in ruins, streets filled with potholes and craters from bombs, farms covered with weeds, the people still in bondage (though to a new power, the Soviet Union). Even after the Nazis have been defeated, there is no victory. Righteousness and equity are totally absent in that brave new world. And so it is and ever will be, until the King returns to make all things new.

I have a friend whose family tradition with his children included rehearsals of the importance of remembering. When one prepared to go out for the day or for the evening, they would recite their little admonition to them, “Remember who you are.” The remembrance was to be of the sort of family they were, the sort of values they cherished, a way for young people to face the compromising values of the world from a solid perspective provided in their home. Of course, the admonition was often met with dismissal when the youngsters were adolescents. But then, when one had returned from college and his father was preparing to leave for the day for meetings in Portland, his son came to him as he got in his car and counseled him to “remember who you are.” The father was delighted. After all these years, this son was now taking part, laying claim to these common family values and even encouraging his father with them. But wait, not so fast. It turned out his son was referring to another kind of remembering. “No, Dad, I mean it literally: remember who you are. You’re getting older, your memory isn’t what it used to be, and in a strange town, you might forget who you are!”...

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